We started up to the top from the parking lot. But of course we had to stop at the rest rooms. I love old bladders! One of those tree was hanging right near the toilet so I was able to get a good close picture of the berries. What are they? The restrooms could not have been more than a couple hundred feet from the parking lot but even with my persimmon walking stick my legs hurt and I was having difficulty getting a deep breath. One of my favorite kinds of scenery came strolling down from the top. They said the view was great but the trip up wasn’t worth the walk. I told him we were from Houston and not used to the height. Turns out they live about 2 miles from us on the northwest side of Houston. Talk about small world.
The picture is an idealized version of the observation tower on Clingmans Dome. It looked interesting but Caro said “No Way!” so off I went.
Just above the rest room area I came upon a sign with information about the Dome. Notice it says a half mile and 30 minutes. I was already laboring but didn‘t want Caro to think I was a wimp so I forged ahead. About 200 more feet I realized I really did not want to see the observation tower. After all I had a picture of the thing.
So I thrust out my chest and went sauntering back down to the parking lot where Caro was. Little did she know how the experience humbled me. At the bottom of the path there was a lady with a bull dog so ugly he was cute. Everybody that passed them had to lean over and pet him. The dog was in heaven.
We took a few more pictures from the parking lot. I was anxious about the car overheating and the brakes burning out so I really didn‘t see much on the way down. Caro caught the anxiety from me and we must have been like Lucy and Desi in the “Longest Trailer“. We couldn’t seem to finish a sentence.
Caro was still learning how to use her camera and somehow managed to take two different views in the same picture. I cannot see much value in that hence the annotation.
My mind was eased on the way down when Caro pointed out the numerous springs where we could get water for the car.
We made it back to the Rainbow Inn and got ready for dinner with Di and Jim and Judy and her daughter and granddaughter. We had a great meal at a restaurant named “ALAMO“. I had the most wonderful grilled trout. Unfortunately I cannot remember what anyone else had due to moderately large doses of “bad coke“. In the morning Di and Jim left and we packed up and left the Rainbow about 11 am.
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